It Will Change Everything
Chapter 1
"I just…can't believe he's gone. Actually gone." Said Harry as he fumbled with the rose he was about to put on the marble casket.
"Harry, the only thing you can do is finish what he started," replied a very solemn Hermione, "but first, you should go to Godric's Hollow, like you've been promising."
She was right. Harry had been yearning to go to Godric's Hollow for what seemed like a century. But he was determined to find R.A.B.
"I have to set my priorities in order. Unfinished business is not worth stalling." Harry set down the rose and proceeded back to the castle with Ginny. Hermione looked down at the casket and muttered something under her breath. She then walked hesitantly away and tried to catch up with the two of them.
As the night grew dark, the tension in the common room increased. Not a single person dared to utter a word that would send the entire room in tears. That is, until Alicia came in. She was never the one to speak up, but it seems she had a lot to say.
"Look," she began, "I hate this as much as you all do, but we can't let our sorrow get in the way of what Dumbledore wanted us to do, and that was learn." At the mere mention of his name, three girls broke down, sobbing. "I can't believe you all have lost your hope. This isn't what Dumbledore would have wanted. This isn't…" Her voice trailed off and it seemed she could not go on. Hermione was trembling, her tears shining on her face from the firelight. "I, I need some air." She got up from the warm velvet chair and made haste out of the portrait. Hermione knew that being on the grounds would help her to seek solitude.
She walked all around the castle, just thinking about the events that had happened, when she heard a rustling in the trees. A dark figured appeared in the shadow of the nearest tree. The figured was hunched over, and speaking in a gravely tone. "You be Granger?" Hermione could tell from the tone of voice that it was a man. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You'd better introduce yourself before you get any answers."
"I be Dameus. Dameus Forthwright. I come from Godric's Hollow." A shiver shot down Hermione's spine when he mentioned the Hollow. Anyone from Godric's Hollow was respectable, from what she had researched. She thought it was safe to reveal her identity to him.
"You be Granger?" Dameus repeated.
"Yes…yes, Hermione Granger. What is it you need, sir?" She was tentative. Did it have something to do with Harry?
"The Potter boy, you know him?" Yes, this must have something to do with Harry, she thought, I'd better be careful about what I disclose. "Perhaps I do. What do you want with him?"
"I must speak with him," Dameus' voice became more urgent now. "I must speak to him about…about his parents…parents.
"Harry's parents are dead, everyone knows that." Hermione wondered what this strange man wanted. Didn't he know Harry's past? Everyone else did.
"No, no, not dead. Hiding."